Legislation would give more eligibility to reservists, National Guard for disability benefits

From Navy Times:

Legislation aimed at ensuring wounded National Guard and reserve members don’t fall through the cracks and end up waiting for months for disability benefits was introduced April 31 by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

The bill, S 944, requires wounded reservists to be kept on active duty until they are fully evaluated or at least have time to consult with a military lawyer about their eligibility for benefits. If they remain on active duty, the bill requires them to be returned to their homes, if medically feasible, to await the outcome of their evaluations.

If someone is discharged and cannot work because of their service-connected injury, the bill calls for them to be returned to active duty at full pay until they can access benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The idea, said Feingold, is to prevent a gap in income if a person leaves active duty without being eligible for military benefits — or not knowing about military benefits for which they may be eligible — and ends up with financial problems while waiting for veterans disability benefits to kick in.

“The armed forces have come a long way in addressing the bureaucratic hurdles that have long plagued wounded service members transitioning out of the services,” Feingold said. “However, much more remains to be done to ensure that wounded service members do not go without income due to injuries sustained in the line of duty.”

He said many injured troops are going “without compensation of any kind because they are never told about the patchwork of programs designed to care for them as they transition back to civilian life and into VA.”

“This has been a particular concern for members of the reserve components,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is an original co-sponsor of the bill that is likely to end up as an amendment offered to the 2010 defense authorization bill.

Feingold proposes to cover the cost of additional active-duty pay and legal help and advocates for wounded Guard and reserve members by demanding that the Defense Department recover $273 million in overpayments made to defense contractors over the last four years.

The bill is endorsed by several major veterans groups, including Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, the Military Officers Association of America, the National Guard Association of the United States and the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States.